Fate Core: Agents of the Black Buck

Iron Teeth in the Boundless Maw

Season 2, Episode 3

SYNOPSIS

— Heeding Adash’s advice, Orren, Carlin, Norneth, and Jarkko choose to take their airship south along the coast to Dusseldorf, where a “great power” has been rumored to have been lurking.
— The party arrive in a nearby port town, Janae, and run into a flamboyant fighter named Jacques-Pierre among the throng of adventurers; he tells them about the mystery in the swamp near Dusseldorf and the group hitches a ride with him.
— The party meet a guard outside the village of Dusseldorf who explains the village only contains the old and infirm, with the able-bodied being called off to war. The guard says the pumps that supply fresh water from the spring in the swamps mysteriously started working of its own accord soon after. Since then adventurers have come to town seeking the power.
— The party breaks up a fight amongst some adventurers in town: an elf with a dire crocodile mount and a group claiming to be “Relic Runners”. They then set off into the Boundless Maw, the swamp outside the village. The party fights off a group of dire rats and giant frogs.
— Carlin races ahead and discovers the Relic Runners have killed Jacques-Pierre. The party catches up and ultimately kills two of the Relic Runners while defeating a shambling mound.
— Jarkko chases the group’s leader, Sandra, into the fortress in the swamp. She tells Jarkko that the Relic Runners were restarted after Ashingport’s Reckoning. She says the group shows no mercy because Company Zero, whom she blames for the destruction, spared none.
— The elf and his mount arrive and a fight breaks out. Sandra attempts to cheap shot Jarkko, but he deflects her blow and kills her.
— Jarkko then experiences a strange vision as a result of his mace. The elf is also killed by Jarkko, triggering another vision.
—Norneth is nearly killed by the dire crocodile after it eats her, but Carlin — fueled by rage to protect her dog and her friends — beheads it. The group loots the bodies.
— The party continue to the top of the tower where they meet a solitary, magical knight wearing rusted armor working the pumps. The knight acts strangely, and implies that he was sent by the Goddess of Law and Justice, Iomedae, to protect the village. The party deduces that the “Iron Bound” man is in fact a talking suit of armor. They explain their situation, and the Iron Bound agrees to help. He states that if the heroes move the villagers to Wood’s End, he would be bound to follow them and protect them there, as this is Iomedae’s current quest for him.
— The heroes return to Dusseldorf and load up the villagers into the Pandora. They return to Wood’s End and are met by Don Vito Leonardo Gennari, who has arrived to call in the favor Jarkko owes him.